The Skanner congratulates Eddie Rye Jr. as an inductee of the Golden Grads Hall of Fame 2017. A ceremony will take place on June 3 at the Garfield Golden Grad annual awards luncheon at Garfield High School in Seattle's urban Central District. Garfield is one of only two options for the district's Highly Capable Cohort for academically highly gifted students.

Eddie Rye Jr's remarkable professional career and his community involvement were integral to him being selected.

Originally from Shreveport, Louisiana, Rye and his family relocated to Seattle in 1952 when is father, who was a Pullman Car Porter, came to the area as an organizer for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Rye has been a radio host, an anti-Apartheid demonstrator, and has made gallant efforts towards social change and economic justice in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2016, The Skanner Foundation’s Drum Major for Justice Award went to Eddie Rye Jr. He was instrumental in renaming Seattle’s Empire Way to Martin Luther King, Jr. Way and in organizing the city’s first MLK celebration in 1983. The celebration that day included a march of thousands from Garfield High school to the Federal Building in downtown Seattle.